1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal using a touch screen display, and more particularly, to a mobile terminal providing a graphic user interface that may be manipulated with a pointed instrument via the touch screen display. Methods of use of the graphic user interface on such a mobile terminal are also presented.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a mobile terminal, such as a cell phone, uses an X-Y coordinate system to describe a location of a point on its associated display screen. In operation, a user generally moves a cursor to a given point on the display screen and “clicks” an enter key. The mobile terminal may interpret the click of the enter key as a command to capture the X-Y coordinates of the cursor. For example, several icons may be displayed on the mobile terminal's display screen. Each icon may be associated with an application stored in a memory of the mobile terminal. The user may cause the cursor to hover over one of the icons. At this instant, the cursor's location and the location of at least one point within the perimeter of the icon share common coordinates; their locations coincide. This situation may be referred to as having the cursor “on” the icon. In this situation, when the user clicks the enter key of the mobile terminal, it may capture the X-Y coordinate location of the cursor. The captured cursor coordinates could be compared to the coordinates of all points within the perimeter of each of the icons on the display. If the location of the cursor coincides with the location of at least one point within the perimeter of one of the displayed icons, the mobile terminal may launch (i.e., “execute”) the application associated with that icon.
The user, however, may not have the cursor on an icon when he or she clicks the enter key. In this situation, because the location of the cursor fails to coincide with the location of at least one point within the perimeter of any of the displayed icons, the mobile terminal will do nothing.
The desktops of mobile terminals are becoming crowded as mobile terminals shrink in physical size and as users add more functionality to their mobile terminals. The combination of at least these two factors may mean that more icons of a smaller size are being packed into a shrinking display area. As mobile terminals with advanced features, such as touch screens, downloadable movies, downloadable music, streaming live television programming and video conferencing features gain popularity, the problem of accurately locating a desired icon will increase.
When using a touch screen, good aim is required to correctly hit a desired icon with a stylus. The wrong application may be launched if the user's aim is off and he hits an unintended icon. Alternatively, no application will be launched if the user misses her icon and taps the empty desktop are between icons. In practice, because mobile terminals are often jostled as they are operated, a user's aim is directly impacted by the movement of the mobile terminal itself. If frustration is to be avoided and productivity is to be increased, users must have a way to reduce desktop clutter and receive an interesting and/or humorous outcome if their desired outcome (e.g., launching an application) does not materialize.
What is needed is an apparatus and method to cause icons to move about the display and to cause at least one icon on the display to move toward and/or around a selection point when the selection point falls on the desktop of the display, and not on an icon.